


An Introduction to the New Romantics

by screamoffkey



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Heathers References, High School, M/M, Maybe some tarty idk yet, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2019-10-10 01:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17416760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/screamoffkey/pseuds/screamoffkey
Summary: “I mean it TJ. When I said everyone has changed since 7th grade, I meant /everyone/. They’ll have your head if you try to resurface some old memories.”Or, TJ Kippen moves back to Shadyside during his Junior year, only to find out that Andi, Buffy, and Cyrus have become terrifyingly popular.(High School AU, inspired by The Heathers)





	1. the rumors are terrible and cruel

**Author's Note:**

> A Heathers AU that nobody asked for. I just love the idea of the Good Hair Crew suddenly turning into alpha bitches in high school.
> 
> Title and Chapters based on New Romantics by Taylor Swift, because I think it's themes fit really well with the direction I want to go with this fic

_You move out of town for a couple of years and all of a sudden it’s like you step into a parallel universe._ That was the thought running through TJ Kippen’s mind as he stared at the spectacle before him. He had left Shadyside after the eighth grade to be with his mom in California, but had moved back to Utah after some ‘parental difficulties.’ He had moved back home with his dad a quarter-way through his Junior year of high school because he wanted a taste of normal again, but… the sight he was staring at was far from normal.

 

It was his first day at his new school, Jefferson High, and he had barely walked into the classroom before his homeroom teacher had ushered him out into the halls with a boy who seemed eager to teach him the ways of Jefferson High School. His plucky tour guide, flashing a sticker that had the name ‘Marty’ hastily scribbled across it, looked familiar in a way that suggested TJ had definitely met him before. Marty hadn’t even managed to open his mouth yet before TJ interrupted.

“We’ve met before… haven’t we?”

Marty gave an uncomfortable laugh, as he tried to fight the awkwardness that was quickly building between the two. “Yeah, TJ… I, uh, tried out for the basketball team back in middle school before you moved. But, we didn’t really talk much after I got cut.”

TJ winced. The one thing he feared about coming back was his reputation as a jerk. A mixture of age, the paradisiacal California weather, and the major Surfer Vibes of his high school out West had softened him out of the douchebag mentality. It had felt like forever since he had been considered even slightly mean by anyone, but now he had to own up to the mistakes he made years ago.

“I’m sorry about… how I acted back in middle school. I’m totally nicer, I swear.” He offered a friendly, but apologetic smile at the brunette, who seemed more than willing to accept the apology.

“Dude, no worries, I get it. Everyone is so different from who they were in middle school.” He gave TJ a once-over, before meeting his stare with a mischievous look in his yes. You definitely _look_ different.”

Marty had a point. Over the course of three years in California, he had grown a couple inched taller, a few shades tanner, and at least a little more stylistically inclined than he had been back in middle school. He’d since relaxed on the hair gel and the AXE body spray; and, while he hadn’t kicked his hoodie habit, they had all been approved by his sister as fashionable before purchasing. The fluffy white one he was wearing right now was a moving away gift from her, actually.

TJ laughed at the slight teasing while the boys walked down the hall, trying to keep pace with Marty’s power walking. Marty spoke fast as he gave the tour of the large high school, and freckled in some light conversations while walking past obvious structures like ‘library’ and ‘cafeteria.’ Jefferson high school was much bigger than its Jefferson Middle, with about 6 different intermediate schools feeding into it, and the school was certainly big enough to accommodate the massive class size. It gave TJ mild comfort to know that he could blend into a crowd for his last years of high school, without having to deal with too many people who knew that he was a total dick when he was 14.

 

Marty had somehow managed to spend the full class period leading TJ throughout the massive school, (and giving TJ a highlight reel of the best gossip that he’s missed out on) because soon enough, the class bell rang, and hordes of chattering students flooded the wide hallways that were previously desolate.

 

Which brings us to the display that TJ Kippen was currently watching. Everything that seemed like a normal passing period, until three figures appeared at the end of the hall. The silhouettes were nonchalant, but almost instantly the crowd cleared a path for them. It was like the world stood still as the three students started walking down the hallway, no one dared speak a decibel above the footsteps of three pairs of shoes on hard tile. It was like something out of an eighty’s movie.

 

“Guess you were going to meet them sooner or later.” Marty whispered into his ear, with a suspenseful tone that TJ really hoped was just him being dramatic. He began narrating the trio, who hadn’t looked even slightly bothered at the stares they were getting. First, a girl with a pixie cut in a green romper, whose boots were clicking just a few steps ahead of her other friends.

“That’s Andi Mack, editor-in-chief of the yearbook. If you get on her bad side, she’ll immortalize your most embarrassing moment in the pages. Girls want to be her; _guys and girls_ want to date her.”

TJ felt his chest tighten as a tall girl in a crimson red letterman jacket and curly hair came into his line of sight. He wasn’t sure if it was her or the boy she was walking beside that was causing the knots in his stomach. Marty continued his whisper commentary, clearly not noticing the building tension in his new friend.

“Buffy Driscoll. Captain of the track team, the girls’ basketball team, and the soccer team. 4.0 GPA. Recruiters are basically begging at her feet to play for their college.”

TJ detected the slightest bit of adoration in the boy’s voice when he spoke of her; or, maybe it was jealousy? He didn’t know Marty well enough to parse out that it was some odd mix of both. He decided not to ask.

“And, of course, Cyrus Goodman.” Marty paused as he looked up at him.

The pair found themselves engaged in some sort of odd staring contest with the dark-haired boy, who had stopped his conversation with Buffy and was clearly looking directly at them. He was a taller than TJ remembered him, and those vibrant brown eyes had gone cold and stoic. He wore a pale-yellow crewneck from a brand that TJ didn’t recognize, and black skinny jeans that tucked into Comme des Garcons converses. His hair was meticulously parted and combed - everything about him was flawless. He only stared for a about a second before deciding to resume his conversation with Buffy, not paying them another glance.

“The kid of Leslie Goodman, as in the TV Show _Dr. Goodman_. In other words, one of the richest families in Shadyside. Also known as the boyfriend of the senior class president Jonah Beck, and for being Co-Homecoming King with him last fall… Together the three of them make up the Good Hair Crew: they practically run the school. Solid Teflon, never touched, never bothered.” And with that, the trio had passed them, continuing on to wherever they were going.

 

TJ stood frozen in the hallway, even as the rest of the populous seemed to return to normal. His brain was reeling, desperately trying to keep up with the information he was processing. _That was Buffy_. _That was Cyrus,_ and _Cyrus has a boyfriend????_ were seemingly the only thoughts his brain could manage to sputter, as though it had found a glitch. _Error 404: my middle school friends all became bad asses without me._

After a few more moments, and an encouraging nudge from Marty, he snapped out of his daze.

“Marty, I know them. They aren’t like that. I remember in middle school those three-”

 

Marty hushed him hurriedly, looking around frantically to make sure no one had heard. “If I were you, I _wouldn’t_ mention anything about the GHC in middle school if you want survive _a day_ at Jefferson. They’ve erased any trace of who they were back then.” He paused, letting the taller boy know that he was serious. “I mean it TJ. When I said everyone has changed since 7th grade, I meant _everyone_. They’ll have your head if you try to surface some old memories.”

Marty hooked a friendly arm around TJ’s shoulder, ignoring that TJ was practically a half-foot taller than him, and shepherded him away from the spot to which his feet were planted. With a lighter tone, he continued rambling.

“C’mon Kippen. We have AP US History next period together. You can freak out all you want about everything you missed while you were busy being a Surfer Boy when Mrs. Peters is lecturing us about the importance of Grover Cleveland.” The quip managed to earn a soft chuckle from TJ, despite his head hurting from the mental confusion of the events that had all taken place within the last five minutes.

He conceded for now, and let the three mysterious figures he used to know exit the hallway and his mind, as he followed Marty down the hallway in the opposite direction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry!!! The GHC + Jonah won't be mean girls/guys for very long. Our boys will crack a hole in that Solid Teflon pretty soon.
> 
> Also TJ is 6'3 in this in case you were wondering exactly *how* tall he got.


	2. every night with us is like a dream

It was 2 a.m. and TJ was hiding under a thick blanket to muffle the blue light of his phone screen. He could hardly breath in the stuffy air under the quilt, but his dad’s studio apartment was small, and he didn’t want to wake him from the bright light of his phone. He was crashing on the couch of the tiny flat for a few weeks until his dad could find a bigger place for the two of them; he didn’t really mind, considering he had moved back home with such short notice.

He had to hand it to his dad: Thomas Kippen Sr. was really taking this whole _son-moving-back-home-after-leaving-to-California-with-his-deadbeat-junkie-ex-wife_ thing better than anyone had initially anticipated, especially considering the circumstances. They’d made it through a full week, and they hadn’t argued about the thing that drove TJ away from home the first time: TJ’s sexuality. His dad was a devout Mormon sure, but when it came between losing contact with both of his kids, or taking them as they are, he had over the years learned to accept that a queer kid is better than nothing. Now, he and TJ were both trying to make do with what little family they had.

 

Right now, TJ was doing exactly that. He was FaceTiming Amber, who had stayed in California for college, and trying his best to catch her up on the absolute mindfuck of a first day he had witnessed.

 

Amber giggled into his ear hysterically through his headphones. “No way! Not _our_ Andi and Cyrus. You’re lying to me TJ, and you cannot convince me otherwise!”

“Amber I swear to God, they’ve gone totally Mean Girls. I saw Andi practically make one of her journalists cry before fifth period.”

Amber rolled her eyes at her brother. She was sitting in a library, speaking without headphones in a crowded room. Through the phone, TJ could see pissed off students shoot her death glares. She twirled a finger through her long blonde hair nonchalantly as an older boy shushed her. It was a classic Amber Moment.

“Please! Bambi would _never_. Bambi _could_ never.” She waved an acrylic-painted finger at him dismissively “You’re definitely reading way too into this, TJ. I think the Good Hair Crew just glowed up, and you’re self-conscious because you still dress and act like a thirteen-year-old boy.”

“You’ve literally hand-picked my outfits for me for the past year, Amb. Really, that’s just an insult to yourself.”

The siblings bickered aimlessly for a little, until Amber had finally been shushed and glared at long enough that she relented her spot in the library. In the cool evening air of the college campus, the pair’s conversation took a softer tone.

 

“Dad says hello, by the way… He misses you, Amb.”

“I know, I know. Maybe I’ll try to visit you two over winter break? Now that you’ve given me an actual reason to go back to Butt Fuck, Utah.”

TJ smiled at the thought of it. It had been hard to watch Amber go to college. He’d really come to rely on his big sister since their family life had become so messy, and every day without her by his side felt about a thousand times harder. _It’s only for a year,_ he thought to himself as he let his imagination take him to a freshman dorm at UCLA instead of IKEA couch that he was temporarily calling a bed.

“… Mom says hi, too. From a rehab center, this time.”

“Better than a jail cell, right?” TJ offered, with a sour grimace on his face.

“Baby steps, I guess.” Amber chuckled.

After a few more updates about Amber’s impossibly hot Art History Professor, and TJ’s impossibly boring remedial math class, they said goodbye, and TJ tried to will himself to sleep despite his sorry excuse for a mattress, and the increasing feeling that tomorrow was going to be even weirder than the day before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just some character/world building in this one :')
> 
> this fic is probably going to be a long project (if I don't abandon it lmao) and y'all KNOW how bad I am w/ updates. So, I want to do something different and try to do smaller updates more often The plot really is going to pick up in the 3rd chapter, and tyrus is probs starting in the 4th, so hang on until then!


	3. i'm about to play my ace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this wasn't proof read, so i apologize profusely for typos etc

Cyrus and Buffy twiddle their thumbs over iced coffees as they waited for the third in their trio, who called them to meet here rather than Cyrus’ house. They’d found this this tiny coffee shop, Heather’s, on the edge of town a few weeks ago, and they were desperately trying to make it their new spot. It didn’t feel quite right just yet; nothing was ever going to be The Spoon. But, it was almost always empty, so it served as a perfect interim for secret meetings away from the gaze of both their classmates and their parents.

 

Andi stormed into the coffee shop, letting the door slam behind her. Although not a hair on her head was out of place, she looked disheveled. The look in her eyes was an unsustainable mixture of excited and frantic.

 

It was standard operating procedure at this point: this was the look that Andi Mack only got when she had gossip she was dying to share.

 

Bex and Bowie would be mortified to learn that their daughter was growing up to be a Weapon of Mass Social Destruction. But, given her knack for uncovering familial secrets, it didn’t take much mental flexibility to imagine Andi Mack becoming a high school muckraker: a yearbook editor capable of digging up the worst secrets from Jefferson’s hallways and memorializing them in the annual tabloids that was somehow still allowed to be called a yearbook. She had always had a riotous streak in her, but it had quickly manifested into an unregulated impulse to instigate chaos.

Buffy and Cyrus looked up from the plush seats they were aimlessly flopped on; it didn’t take either long to recognize her trademark expression.

Buffy chimed in. “Jesus fuck, Andi, would you spit it out already? You just walked in and I feel like I’ve been waiting a year for you to tell me the tea you so clearly have.”

Despite her nearly nuclear excited energy that was radiating off the girl in a way that felt like it was a threat to her well-being, Andi Mack tried her best to play coy. “Guess who one of my beat reporters caught a glimpse of today?”

At this, Cyrus, perked his ears. He had a feeling he knew where this conversation was heading. He tried his best to quell the churning in his gut.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Who?”

“TJ. Fucking. Kippen. From 8th grade.”  Andi punctuated out her sentence for dramatic effect. Buffy’s jaw dropped.

“You’ve _got_ to be fucking with me.”

Cyrus sighed and chimed in. “It’s true. I saw him after first period. He was with _Marty_ , of all people.”

“As in… Marty-from-the-party? H _er_ Marty?” A dumbfounded Andi guffawed and pointed an accusatory finger at Buffy.

“Fuck off, Andi.” Buffy was visibly agitated by this news. Ok, sure, whatever: you get drunk at _one_ party and make out with _one_ nobody. It happens. It was definitely _not_ something people needed to bring up to her, or mention, or think of, ever. Andi was beaming at the information, already mocking up a two-page spread, no doubt.

 

“Well fuck me gently with a chainsaw. This is _bad news_ Andi, why are you smiling!? I thought this was going to be _good_ gossip.”

“ _Well,_ this is only bad news for _you guys_.” Andi snarked smugly. “I have nothing to do with this.” She chuckled as she snatched the coffee out of Cyrus’ hand, sipping mischievously and plopping down beside him in the loveseat.

 

“You’re an ass, Andi Mack.” Buffy groaned.

“Don’t blame me. You made me this way.”

“Fair point.”

 

Cyrus only spoke again when both of his friends gave him a pointed glance. They knew that this spelled trouble for him, in particular. Sure, Buffy had a troubled history with the basketball player, _but Cyrus and TJ… They- Well, there was a lot of rumors that could spread._ He was frazzled. His phone buzzed with a message from Jonah, but he ignored it and tucked it back into his jean pocket. With his free hands, he gestured wildly as he spoke.

“Guys, this is bad bad news. TJ has dirt on us, _all of us,_ and if we don’t figure out what to do about him, then it could spell trouble. And, I did _not_ spend the last three years erasing every embarrassing incident of Cyrus Goodman from public memory for a surfer boy in an outlet store hoodie to ruin this for me.”

He had a point. In middle school, Good Hair Crew had more than a few embarrassing moments among them, moments that they’d tirelessly worked to erase ever since Buffy decided that they weren’t going to be shoved around like in high school. High school power was fragile and popularity fleeting; they had to take decisive action to ensure that they could survive these last few years on top.

Buffy looked down to her pristine red nails, thinking, then up at her two friends who looked to her for her input. She’d become the Caesar of their teenage triumvirate; Cyrus had made his case, but she always had the final call.

“Goddammit, fine. We can’t just ignore him. But, what the fuck are we going to do about him?”

“I have something in mind.” Cyrus sighed. “But, you guys aren’t going to like it.”

\--

Th next morning, a tired T.J. Kippen stumbled into school. His back was stiff from his lackluster sleeping arrangements, and he had barely managed to unjam his locker before a boy wearing a yellow Calvin Klein polo slinked into his vision.

“TJ Kippen.”

Immediately, TJ’s day got better. Standing in front of him was Cyrus Goodman, in all his newfound immaculacy. Cyrus, however, was frowning. Despite initiating the conversation, Cyrus looked less than happy to be talking to him. That fact didn’t stop a goofy smile from spreading across TJ’s tan face.

“Hey, Underdog! Long time no see.”

“Don’t call me that.” His voice was flat and bored. His brown eyes were focused, drilling holes in TJ’s skull, like his brain was working tirelessly to solve some complicated problem located through TJ. A second, slightly confused, frown between the pair soon met the first.

“So, uh, what brings you to my locker?”

“Sit with Buffy, Andi, Jonah and me during lunch today. We have an offer for you.” It wasn’t a request, but a command. And TJ looked dumbfounded as the boy immediately turned away and left him in the dust. He had no choice but to follow orders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOPS. I rlly thought I was done writing Andi Mack fics, but here I am. No promises for what I'll be writing next or when I'll do it, but I do have plans to add some more chapters to this fic and some other incomplete ones (One Third Better I'm looking at you).
> 
> That being said, pls kudo/comment, bc y'all been knew that I live for validation, and ur encouragement rlly is what keeps me writing xoxo
> 
> Also apologizes for making Andi, Buffy, and Cyrus all so hateable in this fic... but that's what you signed up for when you read a heathers au lmao. dw dw they'll get less mean w time.


End file.
